The Bell Spirit's First Words

Chapter Ten: The Bell's First Words

Three days after returning from the Sun Star, Taiyi finally sensed something was wrong.

It wasn't his body – his body was perfectly fine. The Chaos True Sun Fire burned brightly in his Dantian, his mana filling him to the brim, almost overflowing. It wasn't his state of mind either. Although the Calamity hung over him like a blade, he had found a strange peace these past few days, a sense of resigned acceptance that "what will be, will be."

It was the Chaos Bell that was wrong.

Ever since he returned, the bell had been... agitated.

Taiyi sat cross-legged on his bed, meditating. His eyes were closed, but his divine sense was focused entirely on the bell within his Dantian. The Chaos Bell floated there, looking no different from usual. Its ancient, profound Xuanhuang bell body, the three rings of sun patterns dimly visible, the dark red layer around its edge indistinct.

Yet, it trembled slightly at intervals.

It wasn't the vibration of being struck, but a subtler tremor from within. As if something deep inside the bell had shifted, or hiccuped. The trembling was rhythmic, occurring about every half-hour and lasting for roughly three breaths.

At first, Taiyi dismissed it, thinking it was a lingering instability after refining the Blood Fiend. But three days passed, and the disturbance not only persisted but grew more pronounced.

This afternoon, while he was in his study flipping through dusty ancient texts, the Chaos Bell suddenly vibrated – this time, with such force that the bamboo scroll in his hand nearly slipped.

"What exactly do you want?" Taiyi placed the scroll back on the shelf and asked in a low voice.

In his Dantian, the bell fell silent again.

Taiyi frowned, walked back to his bed, and sat down. He sent his divine sense into his body, directly to the Chaos Bell. He circled the bell, examining it closely. It was still the same bell, yet he felt... something was different.

He reached out – with a hand formed from his divine sense, of course – and gently touched the bell's surface.

It was cool.

But beneath the coolness, there was a faint, elusive warmth. The warmth was so faint, almost imperceptible, yet Taiyi felt it. It wasn't the warmth of the True Sun Fire; it was something else, something more primal, more chaotic.

He remembered the day he refined the Blood Fiend, how greedily the Chaos Bell had devoured that sliver of demonic god's essence. The bell had been scorching hot then, so hot that his primordial spirit trembled. The temperature had subsided later, but that feeling of it "coming alive" had remained.

"Are you...?" Taiyi hesitated. "About to wake up?"

The bell didn't respond.

Taiyi stared at it for a long moment, then a thought struck him. He tried channeling a sliver of mana into the bell. It was a minuscule amount, like a drop of water into the ocean; it should have been silent.

But the Chaos Bell vibrated violently!

This tremor was more intense than any before. The three sun patterns on its surface instantly blazed with blinding golden light. The dark red layer around the edge seemed to come alive, flowing and swirling like blood dispersing in water. A low hum emanated from within the bell, not the sound of it being struck from the outside, but from its depths, its core.

Taiyi's heart tightened. Just as he was about to withdraw his divine sense, a vast consciousness slammed into his mind!

It wasn't a voice, not an image, but a more direct, forceful "knowing."

"Sha..."

A syllable, broken and indistinct, like bubbles rising from the deep sea.

Then came more fragments, crashing down chaotically:

"Wan... wan zhong..."

"Yang... zhong..."

"E..."

"Bu..."

The information came rapidly and disorderly, making Taiyi's primordial spirit buzz. He gritted his teeth, steadied his mind, and focused on receiving the fragments. They tumbled and pieced themselves together in his consciousness, gradually revealing a vague meaning--

The Chaos Bell needed malevolent energy.

Lots and lots of malevolent energy, all kinds of malevolent energy. Ten thousand kinds? Perhaps more. By nurturing it with these energies, the bell could be "completed," and then... and then what?

The fragments ceased.

The vast consciousness receded like a tide, its arrival as sudden as its departure. The Chaos Bell fell silent again, the light on its surface dimmed, and the humming disappeared. It was as if the recent commotion had exhausted all its strength, and it had fallen back asleep.

Taiyi gasped, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

He opened his eyes. His chamber was dim, the sky outside the window having long since turned dark. Lights flickered in the distant palaces, their dim yellow glow casting hazy grids on the floor through the window lattice.

He leaned back on his bed, staring into the darkness, his mind still buzzing.

Ten thousand kinds of malevolent energy.

This demand... was truly audacious.

The Great Wilderness had no shortage of malevolent energy. Battlefields, ancient ruins, dangerous territories – they were all permeated with it. But malevolent energy wasn't all the same, just as people weren't the same. Battlefield malevolent energy was violent, blood fiend energy was venomous, resentment energy was viscous, earth vein energy was dense, and star malevolent energy was ethereal... If one were to scrutinize, there were far more than ten thousand kinds.

The key question was, what did the Chaos Bell want with malevolent energy?

Taiyi couldn't understand. This bell was an Innate Supreme Treasure, born from Pangu's axe, upright and majestic. It should have been incompatible with the sinister and defiled nature of malevolent energy, like fire and water. Yet now, it claimed to need it, not just need it, but ten thousand kinds of it.

Unless...

Unless the Chaos Bell itself was not as "righteous" as it appeared.

This thought made Taiyi's heart skip a beat. He remembered the dark red layer around the bell's edge, the greedy devouring sensation when it refined the Blood Fiend, and the chaotic, primal, almost savage aura transmitted by the artifact spirit just now.

Perhaps this bell had never been a "righteous" magic treasure.

Perhaps it was something born from chaos itself, carrying chaos's disorder and greed. It had merely donned the guise of an "Innate Supreme Treasure" to deceive everyone.

Taiyi shook his head, pushing the thought aside. Thinking about it now was useless; the crucial thing was what to do. Ten thousand kinds of malevolent energy – where to find it? How to obtain it? And how to use it once obtained?

He got up, walked to the window, and pushed it open. The night wind poured in, carrying the damp, cool moisture from the sea of clouds. In the distance, the lights of the Heavenly Court stretched out in a continuous expanse, like an inverted river of stars.

After watching for a while, he suddenly remembered something.

The Chaos Bell needed malevolent energy, and Pangu Hall might hold clues. And Pangu Hall… was the ancestral land of the Witch Race, the place where the Twelve Ancestral Witches resided. Going there was like walking into a dragon's den or a tiger's lair.

But the next sign-in location given by the System was the outer perimeter of Pangu Hall.

Taiyi narrowed his eyes.

Was this a case of "just as I wished, a pillow arrived when I was sleepy"? It was perfect. He was going to Pangu Hall to sign in anyway, and he could explore the clue for malevolent energy along the way. It was killing two birds with one stone.

Except this "one stone" required risking his life.

He closed the window and walked back to the couch. He didn't sit down but stood there, his divine sense sinking into his Dantian, arriving before the Chaos Bell once more. The bell hung silently, ancient and heavy, like a taciturn old man.

But Taiyi knew that this silence was a facade.

"You want malevolent energy," he conveyed his thoughts through divine sense. "Fine. But you have to help me too."

The bell didn't react.

"I'll help you find malevolent energy, help you complete yourself. You also have to help me—help me become stronger, help me survive." Taiyi continued, his tone calm, yet with a hint of ruthlessness. "The Calamity is coming. I need enough power to go to those places, to find what you want."

This time, the bell vibrated gently.

Very subtly, as if nodding.

Taiyi smiled, a bittersweet smile. What was this? A transaction? Or symbiosis? He didn't know. But he understood one thing: from this moment on, he and this bell were truly bound together.

As he was thinking, footsteps could be heard from outside the door.

Light, yet steady, they approached the sleeping quarters step by step. Taiyi's heart stirred. He withdrew his divine sense from his Dantian and tidied his robes. The footsteps stopped outside the door, followed by three knocks.

"Taiyi."

It was Di Jun's voice.

Taiyi went to open the door. Di Jun stood outside, not in his court attire, but in a simple, dark gold casual robe, his hair loosely tied. His hands were empty, no food box in sight.

"Brother?" Taiyi stepped aside to let him in.

Di Jun walked in, his gaze sweeping around the sleeping quarters before finally landing on the unfurled "Calamity Survival Record" on the small table by the couch. He walked over, looked down without touching it, and then looked up again.

"I heard you haven't left your room these past two days?" Di Jun asked.

"Mm, recuperating," Taiyi replied. "After returning from the Sun Star, I needed to consolidate."

Di Jun nodded and sat down by the couch. Taiyi closed the door and sat opposite him. For a moment, neither brother spoke, and the sleeping quarters were so quiet that the crackling of the candlelight could be heard.

"I came tonight," Di Jun finally said, "because there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"The Chaos Bell..." Di Jun paused. "Is something wrong with it?"

Taiyi's heart skipped a beat, but his expression remained unchanged. "Why do you ask?"

"Bai Ze came to me the day before yesterday, saying that the heavenly secrets indicated the aura of a supreme treasure in the Heavenly Court was changing," Di Jun said, looking at him. "At first, I thought it was the Hetu Luoshu, but after deduction, I realized it wasn't. Further investigation pointed to the Chaos Bell."

Taiyi fell silent.

"Taiyi," Di Jun's voice deepened. "I'm your brother. If there's anything, don't hide it from me."

"I'm not hiding anything," Taiyi sighed. "There has been some change, but it's not a bad thing. The Chaos Bell... seems to be awakening."

"Awakening?"

"Yes, its artifact spirit," Taiyi said. "Before, this bell was like a dead object, possessing power but no sentience. But recently, I can feel something inside waking up."

Di Jun frowned. "The artifact spirit of an Innate Supreme Treasure awakening is a good thing. But the aura change deduced by Bai Ze has a sense of... malevolence."

Malevolence.

Taiyi knew in his heart that it was probably the influence of the Blood Fiend and malevolent energy. But he couldn't say it, not yet anyway.

"Perhaps there was a slight mishap during the refinement process," he chose to tell a half-truth. "The Chaos Bell is not an ordinary magical artifact, and refining it carries risks. But I can control it, don't worry."

Di Jun stared at him for a long time, then slowly nodded. "As long as you know what you're doing. Just remember—no matter what happens, don't let the artifact take over. You are the Eastern Emperor, not the Bell's slave."

The words were heavy, but Taiyi heard the concern within them. He smiled. "I know."

Di Jun stood up. "I'm leaving. Prepare yourself for the sermon at Zixiao Palace."

"Mm."

At the door, Di Jun suddenly stopped and looked back at him. "Taiyi, the Calamity is approaching, be careful with everything. Some powers... if you can avoid them, don't touch them."

With that, he opened the door and walked out.

The door closed softly behind him. Taiyi stood inside, looking at the door, motionless for a long time.

The candlelight cast flickering shadows on the wall.

He knew what Di Jun was worried about—worried that he would take shortcuts, worried that he would touch things he shouldn't, worried that he would pay an unacceptable price for power.

But some paths, once taken, could never be turned back from.

He walked back to the couch and sat down cross-legged again. His divine sense sank into his Dantian. The Chaos Bell hung there silently, the sun patterns on its surface flashing dimly and brightly with his breathing.

Like a heartbeat.

As if waiting for him to make a decision.

Taiyi stared for a long time before finally exhaling slowly.

"Then let's go," he said in his heart. "Never mind right or wrong, never mind the cost. As long as I can live, as long as I can protect those I should protect, that's enough."

The bell trembled gently.

As if in response.